Bookings and traveler engagement driven by management actions

According to a recent study of accommodations in the 25 most reviewed cities on TripAdvisor1, your level of engagement impacts how engaged travelers are.

To encourage more travelers to view your TripAdvisor page and make booking enquiries, follow this step-by-step guide on the top three traveler engagement factors.

Engagement factor: How many photos you have

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to having at least one photo on your property page, it’s also worth 138% more traveler engagement and a 225% increase in likelihood of a booking inquiry. For properties with at least 100 photos, engagement levels rise to 151% and likelihood of a booking inquiry rises to 238% compared to properties with no photos.

Pick an employee with a good eye to take photos, or consider hiring a professional photographer – ask the photographers who work the weddings at your property to recommend someone.

Whenever you add a feature, make renovations or redecorate, take photos and upload them to TripAdvisor.

You should also encourage guests to upload photos of their stay. You can integrate the suggestion into your check-in and check-out processes, and include a link to write a review and submit photos in the email you send thanking guests after their stay.

Engagement factor: How many Management Responses you have

Taking a little time to respond to reviews can improve both traveler engagement and average review rating. Compared to properties that don’t respond to reviews, those that respond to at least 13% of reviews see a 21% boost in engagement. And accommodations that respond to at least 50% of reviews increase their likelihood of receiving a booking inquiry by 24%.

Plus, joining the conversation on TripAdvisor has a significant impact on overall ratings for hotels and B&Bs. Properties that don’t respond to reviews have a 3.81 average review rating, with average rating jumping to 4.05 for accommodations that respond at least 40% of the time and 4.15 for properties with a 65%+ response rate.

Set measurable goals, such as “Respond to at least 1 in 7 reviews” (based on the 13% above) or “Spend 1 hour each week reviewing Management Responses from staff.”

Treat each review as if you got the feedback in-person. In your Management Response, thank the traveler for their feedback, share any helpful additional information and explain how you’ll incorporate this feedback moving forward.

If there was an issue, apologize for the inconvenience, explain your side of things without getting defensive and reassure the traveler – and potential guests reading your response – by detailing what you’ll do to prevent the issue from happening again.

Take the next step

Now that you know there’s a measurable benefit to being more engaged on TripAdvisor, it’s time to get into action. Login to your Management Center to upload Management Photos and respond to traveler reviews.

To encourage more guests to submit their own photos as part of a review, try using Review Express. It’s a free way to email up to 1,000 recent guests at one time with a reminder to write a review on TripAdvisor.